For over the past four years, I’ve been blogging over at GNM Parents. Started originally b y Chris Brogan, it’s always been one of my favorite projects, where I can write about kids, parenting, and family issues that are important to me, but don’t fit as well over here at Reading Whitney. GNM Parents has been the pet project of Megin Hatch and Stu Mark, and both Megin and Stu have been the guiding force of this blog, getting new writers, making sure we all stay on schedule, editing, formatting and generally doing all the hard and boring work blogging can entail.
GNM Parents has always been different from other parenting blogs. I’ve always thought of it as more of the New Yorker Magazine of parenting blogs, rather than a blog focused more on promoting products or talking about the drudgery of parenting. My last post talked about the iPad and my kids, but I often write about the issues that come up in our lives, including how the dance between parents and teachers works, what it’s like to be raising young men and dealing with things like the first date and how to chaperone but be invisible at the same time.
I love the opportunity to be reflective about what parenting and family means to me, and the comments often help me solve some of those problems where you just kind of feel lost in the weeds of parenting. We’re all going to have those times where we just don’t know what to do, or who we can talk to to try to work out the feeling of being less than perfect, and not having all the answers. Parenting has far more grey areas than I ever thought, and often, we’re all flying by the seat of our pants. Having a place to talk and share those things openly is a real blessing for me, and it’s hard to believe I’m still doing this after 4 years.
If you get a chance, please take a peek over at GNM Parents, and let me know what you think. We’re always looking for folks who want to write with us, and if you are interested, please send me your name, email address, and, if you’re up for it, a sample post on something that’s meaningful to you. (Please send all submissions to hoffmandigitalmedia (at) gmail.com) I’ll send these on to our editor, Stu Mark, and we’d love to have you join us. It is a volunteer position, but I have to tell you, it’s the best outlet I’ve had, and I’ve never for a moment thought I’d only do it if I got paid. The experience, the growth I’ve had as a writer, and the support I’ve gotten continue to be tremendous. I think GNM Parents is something special on the web, and we’d love to have you give it a whirl yourself.